Castle of Illusions
by and its JESS
Summary: Colin's parents are dead from a mysterious illness, so he goes to seek refuge in an old haunted house in the mountains of Montalbino. Entirely original, Howl and Sophie will be kind of 'background' characters.
1. In Which Colin braves a Haunted House

**I do not own Howl's Moving Castle, much to my regret. I would just _love_ to hug and squeal over Michael and Howl and see how Sophie and Martha react.. However, Colin and any other characters I think up do belong to me and are the products of my very large imagination. This is set two years after House of Many Ways (I am going to introduce Charmain and Peter along later in the story..)**

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When Colin thought of haunted houses, he usually thought of ghosts. Ghosts, zombies, and all those wonderful types of bloody monsters. And, as any ten year old self-proclaimed 'ninja of the mountains', he thought they were fascinating and 'cool'.

That was before his parents died of a mysterious illness.

They lived in a nice village called Mockingbird Valley, right in the crook of Mount Goat and Mount Sheep (really, who named them?) in the Mountains of Montalbino. Colin's father was a hunter, always going off with his buddies to the mountains and bringing home a nice leg of deer or something like that for supper. His mother was a healer and also a powerful witch (which was good for patching up Colin's father every time a deer trampled him), and she brought Colin up quite well. They were relatively well-off, not too rich but not sleeping in the streets, and Colin was always taught to be absolutely polite to everything and everyone as well as to be 'chivalrous, cherished, and an example of chastity'. Colin had no idea what she had meant- he was only six at that time, after all. So he simply assumsed she wanted him to be nice and kind to everyone and skip around singing like in those brightly colored weird picture books.

Colin had lots of friends, and he was happy with his life. He never worried, he never starved, and his parents never hit him. This was, of course, before the problem.

The 'problem', as Colin so eloquently put it, started with his father. He was always in the wild, hunting game, and sometimes the game had diseases. Colin remembered the time he had brought home a deer with rabies- they would have caught it as well, if his mother had not the sense to throw it out to the stray dogs that always lingered near their places. Stray dogs were always quite smart, and were able to sniff out anything, especially diseases.

However, this disease must have been a relatively new one, because not only had the dogs failed to detect illness, they had devoured it rapidly along with his parents- fortunately, he was sick and not allowed to eat or drink anything but broth.

The disease worked fast, and before long his mother and father were plagued with spots- blue spots, not like the chicken pox he had had when smaller. They became frail and weak, and his father died within a week. His mother, being an excellent healer herself, could hold out longer, and beckoned for Colin to speak with her- she had forbidden him to see either of them, for fear he would catch it himself. However, she could feel it finally leaving her system, but with the price that she only had a few days to live. Sighing quietly, for there were many things in life she had wanted to do, she felt Colin come in.

"M-mother?" Colin was white faced and pale, taking in how deathly ill his mother was.

"Hello, Colin." His mother smiled weakly.

"I-is there anything I c-can do?"

Mother shook her head. What a nice kid Colin was becoming- pity she was not strong enough to keep going. "No, but I have one thing to tell you."

Colin swallowed, nodding.

"Once I am dead- and don't look at me like that, you know mother knows best-" she stared sternly, hints of her old self shining through the frail and sick mask, "Go to the mansion, the Haunted House as you would, up in the mountains. I daresay that you've been there before."

Colin's eyes widened, not only by the shock that his mother was indeed dying, like his father whom he had buried this morning, and the incredulous sense that she wanted him to go there, there of all places. If she knew he had been there before (it was for a bet- he was a kid, after all), then she must have known that he had been chased away by the old hag that lived there- she was _creepy._

"Then, when you are there, find the old hag you're so afraid of. She an.. old acquaintance of mine. Say this phrase: "A bed of Roses." and do whatever she tells you."

Colin nodded rather nervously, and murmured the phrase. His mother's first name was Rose- was it some kind of code?

His mother looked satisfied, nodding. "Alright, go now. I would much prefer if you didn't end up dead as well."

Colin opened his mouth to protest, saying he wanted to be with his mother in her final days, but she looked at him sternly, and he fled.

* * *

Colin stepped outside of the house he had been raised in, and took one final glance around his street. If he was to go to that old hag, even if he wasn't going to be Apple Pie by the end of today, it was still likely the last time he would be here. She lived way up high in the mountains in the many nooks and crannies of Montalbino Mountains (Montalbino was a relatively large kingdom, but more than 2/3 of it was covered in mountains and wilderness) and an old lady- no, elderly woman. Mother wouldn't be happy if she knew he was being so rude. But then again, she had wanted him to go find her, the old hag of the mountains, as she was called around the town.. Maybe the disease had affected her brain.

No. Colin mentally shook himself. He was not going to think like that. Mother had told him to do it, and one should always respect another's final wishes- especially if that another is your mother. Colin sighed. Oh well- maybe she would be having a good day and turn him into Shepherd's Pie, one that Colin had always liked. Maybe it wouldn't be to bad to end up as a Shepherd's pie in an old hag's stomach..

He set off.

The mountains of montalbino that were near Mockingbird valley weren't particularly large, rugged mountains- they had worn old and eroded by time, and it was easy to hike in. However, the Haunted Mansion was a few mountain peaks away, and it took nearly the entire afternoon to get there. Once he had, however, Colin stared at it in surprise.

It wasn't as old and decrepit as before- in fact, if Colin seriously doubted there were two large and strange mansions hidden in the mountains, Colin would have mistook it for a different, slightly more taken care of mansion. Instead of the dark and gloomy house it was- everything was white. White with tints of gray- and it was grand. Big, large, and grand- it even had one of those fancy column things from Romania or something!

Colin gawked at it for a moment, then reminded himself that it was probably just an illusion spell- but a lifetime with a strong witch for a mother made Colin almost feel the kinds of magic, and this wasn't it. In fact, the old mansion, the one all dark and shabby, felt more like an illusion than this.

Colin told himself to stop staring. The old hag would be the same- maybe she had actually hired some workers to repair it. Yes, that was it.

Sucking in his breath apprehensively and preparing for the worst, Colin reached out a hand and knocked.

And knocked.

And knocked.

Finally, after fifteen straight minutes of just banging on the door, Colin gave up. Maybe the old hag or whoever lived here was out shopping. There was nothing to do but wait. And wait. And wait.

Colin gave up trying to do that, either, and finally decided to just open the door and be with it. It was rude, but dark was settling, and mother certainly didn't want him to die of cold, as it often was with tourists in the mountains. Besides, if the hag and her were friends, than she probably wouldn't get too mad..

There was that shepherd's pie idea again. Colin shuddered, trying the knob.

Surprisingly, it swung open.

Then again, he reflected, it had swung open before when it was old and decrepit- maybe it really was a spell.

The inside was just as grand as the outside might have suggested- Colin's mouth dropped open before he could help himself. It was a grand marble hallway, with assorted doors leading off on the left side- the right was taken up by a huge, huge staircase, all white and shiny. It was exactly how he had pictured a fairy tale castle would look like when he was small. Whoever had done this had serious skill with a hammer and nails- or magic and illusions, whichever.

However, he must have stood there for a long time, for footsteps suddenly started coming from the upstairs.

"..should make the doorbell ring louder, takes forever for the sound to travel.."

Colin's eyes widened. It must be the hag, coming to punish him. In a fit of panic, completely forgetting everything his mother had told him, he let out a small gasp and swung into the nearest door- which turned out to be a coat closet. Fortunately, it was a rather big coat closet, even if there were only a few heavy winter coats in it.

"..hope they didn't go away, been some time since I had visitors.."

The voice was getting louder now, until it was right outside the door. Colin held his breath, heart pounding.

The main door swung open, and Colin could almost hear the voice frown. Surprisingly, it was a young voice, not at all the kind he would have expected an old hag to have. Maybe the hag had died and she had inherited it or something. It would explain the renovations, at least.

"Huh. I could've sworn I heard the doorbell ringing-"

The voice stopped abruptly. Colin hardly dared to breath.

"I can feel you there, you know." The voice sounded irritable. "Absolute rudeness. Ring the doorbell and run away, you little monsters. Or are you one of the spies for Thayack? I _told_ you, I didn't have anything to do with your king!"

Colin squeezed his eyes shut, hoping this would make him disappear.

It didn't work.

"I say, what are you doing here?" Sudden light flooded the closet as the door was flung open. Colin had been caught.

Typical.


	2. In Which Stories are Told

**Nice cliffhanger I did there, eh? -wriggles-**

**Anyway, I do not own Howl's Moving Castle, or any characters in the series. However, up to this point, everything has been entirely original (except the part about montalbino, of course). I promise, Howl and Sophie in later characters. For now, I'm quite happy with Colin. He's fun. 3**

Colin squeaked. He was really going to get it now.. why hadn't he just waited?

Silence resumed as Colin waited for his punishment. Maybe he really was going to end up as shepherd's pie..

However, when the flash of magic hadn't came, Colin just stood there, waiting. He had learned that the longer spells took to set up, the more powerful they ended up as. Maybe he was going to end up as a full five-course buffet for them.

The silence stretched out for what felt like forever, until the other figure spoke, rather annoyed.

"Oh, honestly. I'm not going to eat you. Open your eyes."

Colin relaxed slightly. Maybe he really was getting off the hook.. First checking with one eyelid to make sure, he opened his right eye and saw what he had mistaken to be the 'old hag of the mountains.'

She wasn't.

She was a rather pretty young woman around twenty or so, with fierce black hair down to her sides, and piercing green eyes that studied his own golden-brown ones. There was no malice with those eyes, that rather reminded him of a hidden tiger- waiting for her prey to make the first move. Colin swallowed. Her eyes unnerved him.

The silence stretched on. It really was getting kind of awkward. What do you say to somebody who has just found you hiding in their coat closet?

"H-hi?"

The woman snorted. "Not even a sorry?" She snapped. She obviously had decided he wasn't some kind of spy in disguise, as Colin was still (thankfully) in his own brown haired, golden eyed, small thirteen year old self.

"Sorry?"

The woman seemed to consider this, then nodded. "Apology accepted. Now get into the kitchen and tell me what you were doing there!"

Colin had to grin slightly. She reminded her of his mother at her fierced, and meekly followed her out of the closet and into the kitchen, where, to Colin's interest, actually looked normal. She opened one of the cupboards, extracting to hot mugs of cocoa (even though it was in the midst of summer) and handed one to him, settling down on one of the wooden stools and looked sternly at him.

Colin, nervously, began to speak.

"I'm Colin, and I live down near Mockingbird Valley with my parents.. at least I did until this morning." He swallowed, trying to fight back tears. This was harder than he expected. But he hadn't cried at all since Mother had told him to leave, and he wasn't going to start now. "M-my dad's a Hunter, and he brought home bad meat or something.. a-and the next thing I know, t-they were both sick. Dark brown spots all over their bodies, like the chicken pox, only brown.. Dad was dead within a week but Mum is a healer and witch, but she was still dying.." He swallowed, trying to dislodge the lump rising in his throat. He had abandoned them! Abandoned his mother to die!

The strange woman waited patiently for Colin to calm down and resume his story.

"A-and just this morning, she told me to come in.. and she said sh-she was d-dying." Colin sniffled. He was definitely crying now. The woman started to look slightly concerned, but didn't interrupt. "A-and she told me t-to go find t-the old hag. The old hag of the mountains, we used to call her.. she used to live here, I think.."

He was sobbing louder now, trying to finish his story.

"Don't worry, its okay.." The woman tried to soothe him. It didn't work.

"NO! Its not! I abandoned her! I left her to die! How is that okay?" Colin screamed, wiping his face with his sleeve.

"Er-um its not your fault.. your mother knew that no matter what you did, she would die.." She kept on saying these kind of reassuring things until Colin finally stopped, eyes red. She immediately hopped off her stool and went over to the counter, withdrawing a few hankerchiefs and handing them to Colin awkwardly. She really needed to practice comforting..

Finally swallowing the last of his anger at himself, he told her the last part.

"And she said to tell the hag, when I say her, a phrase."

"What phrase?" The woman looked slightly curious.

"Bed of R-roses." He could barely say his mother's name without breaking down again.

The woman frowned. "Are you sure it was Bed of Roses?" Colin nodded.

"Alright then." She said, taking a deep breath. "So what do you want from the Royal Sorceress of Montalbino, or if you will, the old hag of the mountains. I think I prefer the second better, much less posh.."

Colin immediately forgot his sadness and stared at the woman in surprised. "B-but you're nothing like the old hag! I've seen her before!"

The woman frowned. "You mean you don't see an old woman right now?"

_Well, duh. Idiot._ said his brain. "Uh, no?" said his mouth.

"Huh.." She gazed off into the distance, mouth settled into a 'thinking frown'. His mother had that look on her face a lot as well. "You must have quite powerful magic, then.."

Colin wasn't quite sure he had heard right. He didn't have magic. It was one of the few things he had let his mother down on- Colin was sure she thought that he would end up like him, a very powerful healer. "Excuse me?"

Her frowned deepened, then spoke. "Well, looks like I'm going to join in on storytime too.."

"I'm Lupine, Royal Sorceress of Montalbino. Many people think I just magically disappeared off into the mountains, but more sensible people actually know I still work for the government.. Your mother was one of those very sensible people. I set up residence here, because I absolutely love the mountains and wildlife- and to get away from people. You don't know how many idiots I have to work with each day.. Anyway, people still somehow managed to find me and beg me for spells. I know other royal wizards do that sometimes, but I don't. I don't need much to live on, and the king gets me anything I need. Besides, I need time to myself, not running after nincompoops. So I enchanted it to look like it was falling apart, spread the story that I hike around the mountains and sold the place to an old hag who hated everybody and told them to go away. Worked like a charm. The only people who can see through it is the king- its quite a powerful spell." She stopped her story to frown at Colin, who squirmed rather uncomfortably under her stare. "That's what confuses me. You must have awful strong magic to see through it. Maybe if I train you well enough, you can take over and I can retire.."

Colin wasn't quite happy with that arrangement, and his face must have shown it too, because Lupine burst out laughing and said, "That was a joke, Colin! But anyway," she said, quieting down. Colin even cracked a small smile. "You do have quite powerful magic."

"Oh- and you're probably wondering about your mother and me?" Colin nodded. "Yes, we were siblings. I was younger, but we both had talent. She might have been a Royal Witch as well, except she had no ambition. Stayed in Mockingbird and started a family. The 'bed of roses' thing was a joke we thought up when we were younger- she would say 'bed of roses' and I would say 'lupine bushes'. Lupines are flowers, too, you know."

Colin was shocked. His aunt just happened to be the Royal Sorceress of the country, and his mother had never told him. But then again.. it made sense that his mother would want him to go to Lupine, and when Colin looked closely like her, she did rather resemble his mother. There was the same look in the eyes, the same way she held herself. Really, he probably should have been more upset, but the poor kid was already as upset as he could be.

"Oh, don't look like that." Lupine rolled his eyes. "I made her. Safety precaution, you know. I had no idea if you were trustworthy enough." When Colin looked rather hurt, she added, "Sorry." Colin didn't think she was that sorry, really.

"Anyway, pack up your stuff. We're going down to Mockingbird."

"Why?" Colin was curious.

"To pick up your mother, of course. You didn't think I would leave my sister there to die, did you? Her magic might not be strong enough when she's sick to cure her, but mine probably is."

Colin was so grateful he burst into tears of joy. Lupine shifted rather uncomfortably again. She hated these kinds of moments.

"Er, right. Come on, let's go."

**Bah, a bit short.. I wanted each chapter to be around 2k words..**

**Review! Review! Review!**


	3. Which Contains a Plague

**I dedicate this next chapter to Miss-Vampire-Girl. Thanks for your review! I was really afraid that people might not like it because of it not being entirely about Howl and Sophie- but I promise you, they'll be in the next few chapters, I promise!**

Colin was halfway out the door before Lupine frowned, took hold of his arm, and pulled him back into the room.

"What was that for? We need to go take care of Mum!" Colin said indignantly.

"Rose'll survive, she's tough." Lupine said impatiently, "I'm worried about you."

"I feel fine, I haven't got it! Mum wouldn't let me near her for fear I would get it!"

"Yes, but you'll be down in the valley, and if this is as contagious as the chicken pox, it'll get out of hand sooner or later, most probably sooner. I don't want you getting sick." She said, placing her other hand on his arm.

"What are you going to do?" Colin asked. He hoped it wasn't a shot. He hated shots, no matter how much his mother insisted it was polite not to kick and scream whenever needles came into view.

"Just inject you with some of my magic. Your magic is strong, but it needs to be stronger if it needs to fight off disease. I rather wondered how Rose got sick; the disease must have been either extra strong or sneaky to be able to infect somebody with such a talent."

"She ate a bunch of infected meat dad brought in, I think that's why." Colin eyed her nervously.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to eat you. Or give you a shot." Lupine sounded annoyed. Colin tried not to stare at her; she closed her eyes and muttered something under her breath that Colin didn't quite catch- then, all of a sudden, the place where she had placed her hand went cold. Not painful, just icy cold as if he had dunked his arm right into a bucket of ice water. Fortunately, as quickly as it had came, it had gone, and Colin felt rather refreshed.

"Thanks."

"Told you it wouldn't hurt. My magic's just not like that." She said this with a bit of a smirk. If Colin hadn't been brought up so polite, he probably would have said something like, "But I bet you are." Which he said in his mind. It was rather less satisfying than saying it out loud, but Colin wasn't sure if she would get mad and turn him into pie, no matter if she was his aunt or not.

* * *

When they finally managed to get to Mockingjay Valley, it was deathly quiet. Unnaturally, unnervingly quiet. The village itself looked fine; no burned-down buildings, no sign of attacks, nothing. It was as if everybody decided to take a nap, all at once, in the middle of the day. Colin shivered, lingered behind at the mouth of the valley. Lupine rolled her eyes and strode purposely into town, ignoring the silence scornfully as one might ignore a dusty, old, moth-bitten old shoe.

When she finally got to the part where Colin and his parents had lived, she wrenched open the door with what Colin suspected was more magic, Colin following timidly behind. Lupine did scare him a bit with her directness, actually. She headed straight for his mother's room, whirled around as Colin started to slip in, and commanded him to wait outside.

Then, she quietly slipped in, and to Colin's great relief (his mother wasn't dead!), prodded his mother, startling her out of her afternoon sick nap.

"Hallo, Rose."

"L-lupine?"

"Don'tcha recognize your sister?"

"Bah. I mean, what in the name of our king are you doing here? I sent Colin to you to take care of!"

"Oh, he just couldn't leave you out here to die." She said, a tad too cheerfully. "Besides, he's right outside of the door, anyway."

"What? I specifically told him to abandon me! I don't want him getting sick taking care of m- wait, what? ARE YOU CRAZY? Right in the middle of the infection?"

"I injected some of my magic into him, it acts as a decent vaccine."

"Well, if you hadn't noticed, I'm rather sick as well." His mother commented dryly.

"Yeah, we'll figure that out later. Come on, get up. We're going back to the castle and get you patched up."

"What? You going to inject me too?" His mother said sarcastically. "Fix me up and swing me over?"

"Yep. Now be quiet, please." There was a moment of silence, in which Colin assumed was Lupine doing some more magic, before she heaved a sigh and his mother spoke again.

"What do you know, that actually did the trick. I feel much better now!" She got out of bed and marched through the door where Colin was standing.

"Come on, now that Lupine fixed me up, I'll be fine while I recover. Besides, she needs all the help she gets to find our the cause of this disease." She beckoned him to come over to her, while Lupine, looking rather weary, joined them.

"Come on, its a long way home."

* * *

Despite his mother's protests that she was fine, she still wasn't quite up to hiking up a mountain standards. By the time they finally manage to get a peek at the grand, white marble exterior of 'the Castle of Illusions' as Lupine had called it, she was leaning heavily on Colin's arm. Fortunately, she had never been that bulky, built rather like Colin himself, so Lupine and him supported her quite well.

Drawing closer to the house, Colin's mother dropped onto the small porch bench that was in front of the house, while, to Colin's amazement, Lupine drew out a large silver keyring with dozens of keys on it.

There were many different kinds of keys- small keys, large keys, bronze keys, steel keys- keys of all size, shape and color, were all squeezed into one compactable keyring. It must have weighed a ton. Colin's eyes bugged out just looking at it.

"Oh, it doesn't weigh that much. I placed a spell on it, light as a feather now." Lupine said, distracted, as she fished around for the house key. "No, that's the cellar one, no, that's the winery.. And don't look at me like that, you know how the Castle is. Imagine a room, any kind, it pops up, with an individual key and lock to it."

Colin blushed. It was unnatural how Lupine always knew what people were thinking when she got serious and all. "Oh, I was just wondering, do the bedrooms and bathrooms all need keys? You must get awful used to having to hold it in if you have to fumble around for a key to each bathroom.."

"Oh, no, just the important ones. You know, to the swimming pool, game room, library. Things like that. I had to disable the locks on the bathroom after the first few times my guests.. erm.. had accidents. Another reason I had people coming over.. Ah, here we go!" She exclaimed cheerfully, inserting a shiny white key into the doorknob, turned it, and after a soft Click! they were in.

"But how did I..?"

"How did you get in without the key? I was out and forgotten to lock the door. And I was going to come sooner or later, anyway, you needn't have barged in like that." Lupine said reproachfully; she still wasn't over it, Colin thought with a sigh.

"What's this about barging in?"

Colin had almost forgotten his mother; he winced, and replied. "Oh, nothing. Mum, you look awful.." He looked at Lupine. She sighed and said, "Come on in, Rose. If you don't mind magically-brewed chicken noodle soup, you really do need some."

"Thanks." She said gratefully, rising and following her sister into the house.

* * *

After Lupine had found his mother a decent bedroom upstairs ("You only need to imagine what it looks like, but the trick is you have to add in all the layers, the heater and wood panels of it and stuff. As an added bonus, as long as you don't alter the outdoor appearance, it'll stay the same; mansionlike.") and Colin one himself, ("Don't touch the first one on the right, that's mine. The one on the left is my magician's workshop, don't touch that either. Not unless you want to be some species of toad.") Lupine had plopped herself down on his mother's bed while she sent Colin to go make his mother some chicken soup; you only had to open the cupboard, imagine the type of food you wanted (the cupboard, the wardrobe, and the bedrooms all worked like that; to change anything else, you had to get express permission from Lupine, otherwise you would end up as a toad), and it would appear. Aside from being rather soggy and affecting the taste slightly, it was a relatively good system.

"So, Rose, how have you been feeling?"

"Oh, other than being struck with a plague that killed my husband and is threatening the town where I grew up in?"

Lupine chuckled. She had missed her sister. "Yes, other than that." A brief pause. "And I really am sorry about James."

Rose shrugged, but it was clear that she had never been that close to her husband. "I miss him, but.."

Luckily, Colin returned just then. "Here, mum. Chicken noodle, like you make it."

His mother smiled gratefully, taking the bowl from him and gulping it down.

Lupine cleared her throat. "Um, anyway. We need to discuss what to do with you two; Mockingjay's a mess, and you can't return there. This kind of disease spreads fast, and we just can't. Besides, after this, I'm going to contact the king, and discuss with him what he means. For now, I think its best that you two stay here."

Rose looked at Colin; he shrugged. "We'd be happy to stay."

Lupine shifted, looking slightly uncomfortable. "There's another matter; I want Colin as my apprentice."

"WHAT?" Colin practically shrieked. He wasn't sure if he liked Lupine or not; it was clear she was a very powerful sorceress, but she wasn't the nicest, or pleasantest of witches.

"Yes, its clear you have remarkable talent. Besides, I do need an apprentice, and I would rather trust one of my relatives than any others running around my house. You're going to stay here otherwise, anyway."

"But-I don't want-" Colin spluttered.

"I think its a great idea." Colin stared at his mother. "Hush, dear. Lupine'll be a great teacher, and we'll be staying anyway, it might be good to pick up some wizardry on the way, too."

"Fine." He couldn't argue with his mother, but he could make life with Lupine as miserable as possible. Who cared that it was rude and she was his aunt? If she was his aunt, then she at least owed him thirteen years worth of birthday presents. And christmas presents.

"Great!" Lupine beamed, it was clear that she thought Colin would have been more trouble than this. "I need to go inform the king of our plans now-"

_Ding-DONG!_

Lupine looked slightly disgruntled. "Great. More visitors." Motioning for Colin to come with her and leaving Rose to rest, she led the way down the grand marble staircase, throwing open the door to let in a nervous looking King's Courier, no doubt because of Lupine's ferocious glare.

"Here's a message from the king." He handed Lupine a letter, emblazoned with the national seal. "Something about a plague."

"Huh. I suppose word reached him faster than we did." Lupine muttered, breaking it open and scanning the paper inside. Colin had to stand on his toes to peer over Lupine's shoulder, but before he had the chance to read so much more than "Dear Sorceress Lupine-" it was snatched away.

"This isn't good, Colin. Apparently the disease is traveling like wildfire all over the country, and its beginning to show itself in some countries like Ingary and Strangia as well; the king might have to call a council with all the other wizards for this." Lupine said worriedly. "Tell him that I can get blood samples, and I'll start working on it immediately. Hopefully we can contain it within just Montalbino; an international disaster like this would be terrible."

**Dun dun dun! So what'll happen next? Will the king really have to call in wizards from other countries? Just keep waiting and you'll find out! (sorry about the wait for this one, though! ;3)**


	4. Which is Far Too Full of Wizards

In his dream, Colin was with his best friend, a boy named Christopher. They had dared each other to go into the haunted house in the mountains. Colin, at that time, was only ten, and when they snuck in, the door creaking and floorboards moaning, instead of running away in fright and giggling madly like they had always done, the door slammed shut, leaving them to their fate, as a white, pearly, and angry-looking ghost came floating down the hallway. Colin and Christopher clutched each other, eyes opening wide with fear. It was coming.. coming.. coming..

Colin sat bolt upright in his bed, waking in a cold sweat. Finally scanning the familiar outlines of the bedroom in which he had grown up, he finally managed to heave a relieved sigh that the ghost hadn't been after him, and managed to fall back asleep.

Before his head had even hit the pillow, however, the doorbell rang.

_Ding-Dong!_

Groaning, he pushed his covers away and got out of bed and tried to get dressed, struggling over to his wardrobe.

Blearily, he pulled open the doors, discovered layers upon layers of clean, perfectly ironed white dress shirts, none of them which looked familiar.

_Ding-Dong! Ding-Dong! Ding-ding-ding!_

Reality hit him. He wasn't in his old, beautiful, familiar home back in Mockingbird; no, only an identical replica he had designed himself in the Castle of Illusions. Lupine had said the visitors, the other wizards from other countries, were coming today, and Lupine had told him to answer the door and be a polite, well-bred wizard apprentice.

Groaning, he stared at the wardrobe, picturing the exact suit he wanted to wear today; a dark, navy-blue suit with black cuffs. He had left all his belongings back in Mockingjay except for a select treasured items, but this would do just fine. Lupine had said the charm worked this way, as well as the whole house; sure enough, once he had closed the wardrobe door and opened it again, there it was. Pulling it out and quite satisfied with himself, he finally managed to pull it on, staggering a bit. He had made it a bit too small. Oh well.

Yawning, he staggered into the hallway, encountering a bleary-eyed, Lupine in her nightgown. Seeing him, she said, "Oh, good. You're up. Could you show our guests to the parlor? Across the kitchen, turn right. I'll be in my room if you need me." And she simply staggered back into her room and there was a distant Flop! sound as she fell onto the bed.

Grumbling bitterly at the unfairness of this, Colin glided down the stairs, waking a bit at this. However, it must have taken a bit longer than he had realized to get the door, because he could hear voices through it.

"Are you sure this is the right house, Peter?" It sounded like an old man, thin and elderly.

"Quite positive, after all, I used to live around here." A young man, a rather confident tone to his voice.

"Huh! We've been ringing for fifteen minutes! I say we go check around somewhere else, obviously we've got the wrong house." Cross and impatient sounding, almost like Lupine, but a bit more cross. Lupine was just plain bossy.

"I'm sure!" This time the voice sounded annoyed. "How many castles in the mountains of montalbino can there be?"

"Hmph! So? You couldn't tell your way from right to left if you don't have pieces of colored string around your fingers! How can you be sure this is the right house?"

This would have sounded quite entertaining to Colin if he hadn't needed to answer the door. The voices raised quite a bit and started quarreling, while Colin could swear that the old man just sighed, as if he were used to them bickering.

"Let's just try one more time, maybe Lupine's not up yet." Before they could reach the doorknob however, Colin swung it open, revealing quite a sight. A red-headed fierce, thin, scary-looking girl, maybe one or two years older than him, and a boy around her age with neat tawny curls, were both glaring at each other with absolute fury in their eyes.

Colin coughed, uncomfortable.

They looked at him then, as if they hadn't realized he was there before, and he managed a small, quivery smile. "Um, right this way?" and led them to the parlor. They turned their backs on each other, gave a "Hmph!" and stalked off. The old man rolled his eyes and followed Colin in.

After seating them in the parlor and getting some decent pasties and tea from the pantry (it worked the same way as the wardrobe, even if the taste did end up a bit odd.), he placed it on the solitary table, said, "I'll go get Lupine," And rushed off. They scared him, rather.

He was beginning the descent of the large, marble white staircase when Lupine appeared from the hallway and peered down at him. She was wearing a rather pretty looking emerald green dress, which matched her eyes perfectly. Of course, the way those eyes looked at you made Colin nervous as ever, and rather ruined the whole effect. "Who was it?" she asked.

"Um, I think it was the High Norland." She had given him a list of who each of their soon-to-be guests were, what they looked like, where they were from, and so on. Of course, that didn't help much when confronted by the real ones.

"Okay, that was expected. High Norland is rather close, they should have walked here. Strangia and Thayack are close as well, they should be arriving in half an hour or so. Wizard Suliman and his apprentice next, Lettie's in labor, I think. I don't know when Howl and Sophie come, I have no idea how quickly the moving castle goes.."

"Moving castle?" She hadn't mentioned that before.

"Yes, yes. Moving castle. They have a fire demon, too, Calcifer or something. Be extra polite to him."

"You didn't tell me that before." He said sulkily. What in the world was a fire demon? It sounded scary, but what did it eat? Did it eat people? Was it going to eat them all?

"You should've asked." Lupine stuck up her nose in what Colin had long associated with annoyance. "Go and entertain our guests, I need to take care of some things."

He was halfway down again (it really was a big staircase- Colin was actually a bit afraid of slipping and rolling down like in the cartoons, so he went extra slowly.) when the doorbell rang again.

This time, Lupine rushed out, and to Colin's amazement, sat on the edge of the banister and slid down. It was much quicker and she was past Colin and down to the floor in seconds. Colin shrugged and followed her lead- however, he landed much less gracefully and skidded into the floor. "Ow." He grumbled, rubbing his sore head.

The door revealed a little kid, maybe ten or so, with dirt-brown hair and eyes, freckles, and a huge smile. "Hey there!" He said cheerfully. "I'm Theodore! But you can call me Theo! You're Sorceress Lupine right? I'm from-"

Lupine shut the door in his face. The kid looked nice, but he annoying and way too talkative.

"Okay! I'll wait out here!"

Lupine rolled her eyes and beckoned to Colin to join her, Colin with an expression of reproach on his face. He liked the kid already- anybody who could annoy Lupine within five minutes of being near her was plain amazing.

"Hey, where are you going? I thought you invited us here! I'm from Strangia, but my sister and the Royal Witch Alexandria-"

"Curses." Lupine muttered. "I was hoping he was just a little lost kid I wouldn't have to bother with."

While Colin was pondering what this meant, she stomped back to the door and let him in, soon joined by a small, auburn-haired witch who smiled friendily at Lupine and a girl, around Colin's age, with curly brown hair. Colin thought she was rather cute, but she barely spared him a glance and ran after her brother, who had rushed into the parlor, and judging by the sounds and protests, had proceeded to take the rest of the pasties and with shouts of excitement stuff it into his cheeks. Lupine had no choice but to follow and 'entertain' them.

An hour later, when the only person left to arrive was the mysterious moving castle ones, Colin decided that he better go into the parlor to when the door rang. Of course.

Swiveling around and unlatching the door, he was met by a reddish-gold haired young woman, her son, a brown haired, rather plump two or three year old, and her husband, a rather tall, blond, and dashing man who rather made Colin gape, whose thoughts were immediately replaced by envy.

"Er, you're Colin, right?"

Snapping out of his reverie, Colin nodded, "And you must be Howl and Sophie Pendragon?"

The young woman nodded, smoothing down the edges of her pretty yellowish-orange dress in what Colin made out to be nervousness. The man just smiled at him, looking so positively dashin that Colin was amazed Mrs. Pendragon wasn't swooning in awe or anything. Of course, she was married to him, so that might have been it. The boy- Morgan, Lupine had said- just looked around the inside of the house in amazement.

"Um, okay. Come in."

"Oh, I forgot- you know about Calcifer, right?"

"Your fire demon?"

"Yes, he'll be putting the moving castle somewhere in the back of your castle, and is it alright if he joins us in the parlor fireplace?"

Colin nodded, and showed them in. Maybe the fire demon really wasn't going to eat them or anything. He had been rather worried about that.

They walked right into the middle of a conversation.

"..king has provided us with all the ingredients, from mandrake roots to- Oh!" Beaming, Lupine smiled at the three of them. "Good, we're all here now. We can discuss the arrangements and everything now. Colin, could you maybe take the other apprentices and Morgan and-"

"No!" Morgan frowned at Lupine. "Toys!" Lupine looked flustered and said, "Er, okay then. You can have.. toys."

"Dinosaur!"

"You want a stuffed dinosaur?"

"No! Real dinosaur!"

Sophie intervened then. "No, Morgan. You can't have a dinosaur." Morgan frowned and began beating his hands on his knees and crying.

"Um, Sophie, can you-" Sophie nodded and took Morgan out of the room into the nearby kitchen, where she then began to sternly lecture him.

"Oh, I do apologize for that." Howl smiled apologetically- it was such a dashing smile that practically all of the females in the room blushed slightly. Lupine just rolled her eyes and said. "Alright, Colin. Go and give the apprentices a tour of the castle, they can then show their mentors around. I'll tell you about our arrangements with the king. This way it'll save time."

Colin nodded and beckoned them to follow. Charmain, Peter, Theodore and his sister Elizabeth as well as the dark-haired Christian that had come with the other royal wizard of Ingary, Ben Suliman.

"..you are all going to have to stay here for easy access, but the king will have a good shipment of ingredients sent over every day.."

Once they were out of earshot, Colin turned around, and trying to ignore the nervousness in his chest that all of them were no doubt more experiences and awesomer at magic than he was, he began.

"This is the broom closet, this is the foyer, out back's the swimming pool, there's the dining room.."

By the time they were up to the pink dining room, past the blue dining room, nobody had spoke except for little Theodore, who just didn't seem to be able to shut up at all.

"Does this house bend space and time as well?"

Colin turned around, confused. "What do you mean?"

Peter from High Norland had asked it, and replied to his question. "Like, in our house, it looks to be quite small, but there's a doorway that leads you to different rooms in the house if you turn the right way. There is no way this place can actually be that big, it just doesn't show from the outside."

"Oh." Colin had to think a bit before he answered. "I think Lupine mentioned something about this whole place being just an illusion. Like, she just has to think of how it should look and it just happens. The outside and the inside are two different things, but she said something about them being 'illusions made real'."

Peter nodded, digesting this. Charmain just said, "Do we really need to see the rest of the house then? I imagine it must go on forever if that's really the case." The rest of the group murmured their consent.

"Oh, well, no." He admitted, and just as well, because just then Lupine called out for him.

"Colin! Bring the rest down! We're working on the antidote immediately, but you need to make dinner!"

**Yes, I'm aware that the magic cupboard makes all the meals, just wait for the next chapter and you'll see.**


End file.
